Joey Styles Talks About the WWE Network, WWE’s New Pre-Shows and Post-Shows

Joey Styles: WWE Network is obviously, in my opinion, the biggest thing ever to happen to the pro wrestling/sports entertainment industry. And it’s also revolutionary in terms of the television industry, specifically that the television has just become an appliance.

And you can watch video content on the appliance, not just through a cable or satellite provider, but through streaming video that is provided over the Internet, and WWE Network will be able to be seen on your TV using a game console, smart TVs, Smart DVD players, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku Boxes. You can watch it on your desktop, your laptop, your tablet, your mobile phone. It’s amazing.

There’s a reason these devices are called over-the-top, because content producers like WWE are not only going through the boxes on top of cable boxes, but we are literally leapfrogging over cable and satellite providers to reach our fans.

B/R: How he feels this will impact the wrestling business as a whole:

JS: I think it will help a lot of the legends who are out there doing appearances and wrestling to get more exposure once again on a 24/7 network and have their greatest work out there for those fans to see. For those lapsed fans who are coming back or for younger fans who didn’t know who they were. They will be doing more appearances and those who still wrestle will be doing more of that.

I think it’s great. This has been said by Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart and Steve Austin. It’s great that all of their work will now live forever. Long after they and we are all gone, WWE Network will live on, and anyone who has worked for WWE will have their work live on, and that is amazing. That is a huge concept that cannot be overstated.

B/R: What can we expect from the Raw and SmackDown pre- and post shows?

JS: It is very similar to the pre-shows we do for PPVs in that there is going to be interviews as well as legends and Hall of Famers who will weigh in, but it’s a lot more fast paced and there are a lot of talents involved, and it’s going to be a nice way to get excited for the show ahead, and it’s going to be a great way for fans to get more once Raw or SmackDown goes off the air.